Tuesday, March 8, 2011

”The Method of Science, the Aim of Religion”

“In this connection there was also the point that I was anxious to prove that spiritual progress did not depend on religious or moral codes, but was like any other science. Magick would yield its secrets to the infidel and the libertine, just as one does not have to be a churchwarden in order to discover a new kind of orchid. There are, of course, certain virtues necessary to the Magician; but they are of the same order as those which make a successful chemist.”
-Aleister Crowley

Since the events which transpired on Saturday, I’ve been studying this Slenderman phenomenon almost every waking hour. Arkady can attest to this, as I’ve woke him up a few times with the music I play when I bury myself in research. At least, I was studying him. I’ve had to stop simply due to the sheer volume of inconclusive data that makes scientifically approaching Slenderman nearly impossible. You see, there seem to be two different kinds of information available on him. The first kind is primary accounts of individuals fighting against Slenderman, usually presented in the form of journal entries. The second kind are write ups by individuals who create theories of how or why Slenderman behaves as he does. The second set has its uses, but beyond a certain point it becomes a game of wild guessing and meaningless conjecture because it simply cannot be verified. And to be fair, the only way to verify these sorts of things is to rigorously experiment on the subject, which in this case seems to carry a very high mortality rate. I most certainly do not have any inclination of dealing with him any more than I have to.

The primary accounts have also become problematic. There are so few direct interactions with Slenderman that there is no way to cohesively explain the seemingly contradicting behaviors of Slenderman. Take, for example, the “Operator Symbol.” There does not seem to be any sort of consensus as to how Slenderman perceives or interacts with it, whether it calls to him or acts as some sort of repellant. This is caused mostly by a serious shortage of hard data on Slenderman. Simply put, he tends to interact with others on his own terms, which makes studying him all the more difficult.

Likewise, we have no way of knowing how many individuals may have perceived something in him that could have resulted in conclusive information, but simply died at his hands (or that of his followers, of course) before they could report on any sort of journal entry or otherwise make this knowledge publicly available. Add to that a large number of “bloggers” setting up false journal entries about Slenderman as part of a writing hobby and we have a large pool of data which could very well be tainted.

Thankfully, that may be coming to an end.

Not too long after Arkady moved in, I started noticing myself being followed. A figure whose features I couldn’t quite make out had been watching the apartment intently. At first I thought I might have simply been playing tricks on myself, seeing things because of paranoia resulting from Saturday’s incident and a bunch of my reading. But I kept seeing him or her constantly, always in the distance.

I talked to Arkady about the figure. It didn’t take him long to verify that it was a character by the name of Porfiry. Arkady had some dealings with him, mostly beating him senseless and breaking various bits and pieces of/off him. Arkady referred to him as a “Slenderproxy,” a term that denotes mortals who serve Slenderman. I asked him questions about his behavior, which he obliged (sparing me no gory details), and if he thought Slenderproxies were normal humans or if they had changed. Arkady couldn’t say too much on the subject, but based on his descriptions I believe I have something I can go on.

After putting some thought into it, I’ve decided that if I can’t study the Slenderman phenomenon myself I can go after the next best thing. Based on Arkady’s experiences in dealing with Slenderman and the slenderproxies, it seems that the proxies have more interactions with Slenderman, and a very different sort of interaction. Given that they are (or were) human, there is at least a point of comparison that can be drawn, a base set of data that I can refer to in order to see if Slenderman has had any noticeable effect on humans on both a magickal and anatomical standpoint (besides the obvious, re-arranging of organs and so on). All that I require is a test subject. Arkady seems to think this Porfiry is no challenge, so securing him as a specimen should be no problem. Then I can start substantiating or refuting my theories. What a stroke of good fortune for a change.

6 comments:

Proxies are brain washed humans who now serve slender man. Their level of intelligence and awareness greatly varies. Empty Eyes seems to be completely enthralled, Reach was given compulsions to obey (he broke away from slender and is now on our side), totheark just talks in complete nonsense. Proxies can be freed from control but i am unsure of the method, jay knew the most but he is either dead or a proxie by now. Liam my know how to cure proxies, try asking him.

As for symbols, are you aware of the "I'm watching" symbol? You can find it in the Tribe Twelve videos.

I apologize for the lateness of my responses. Things have gotten a tad more complicated, as you may have read over at Smiting the Gods (http://tellthemisaidiwasgoingtoamerica.blogspot.com/2011/03/proxynapping.html).

I'll definitely want to talk to Liam, if he can cure proxies he may know more about what makes them tick. Reverse engineering is a powerful scientific tool, so with any luck I can pull something useful from his experiences and figure out more about Slender Man.

I've not gotten around to Tribe Twelve yet. I'm most certainly going to be removing the Operator Symbol from use in my sigils. They are too variable in effect for me to use reliably. Especially given Slender Man's casual dismissal of the protective wards I had placed around Porfiry after capture. Perhaps this "I'm watching" symbol could provide more insight.

@tron: Jay as in Jay from Anomalous Data. He cured proxies through injecting chemicals into their brains which resulted in amnesia, causing them to forget everything about Slender Man.But he's dead now, so yeah.